Social Media Market is still nascent in India, says Hareesh Tibrewala, CEO, Social Wavelength

by Aakar on July 6th, 2011 4

Social Media Industry is booming in India. This has given rise to a bevy of social media agencies that are offering social media services to help companies bolster their presence in the social media space.

Social Wavelength is one of India’s largest social media agencies. The company offers 360 degree social media management solutions to businesses. Buzzom got in touch with Mr. Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO of Social Wavelength. Here are his views on the Social media scene in India.

[Aakar] Hi Hareesh, welcome to Buzzom. How have your Entrepreneurial journey been so far?
[Hareesh] It has been a great journey. The joy of working with a start up and the joy of seeing the company grow every day. Yes, I am enjoying every bit of it. There are days of despair and there are days of hope, but finally there is a feeling of gratification that we are not only building a new business, but also seeding a new industry.

[Aakar] Tell us more about Social Wavelength. When did you start the company?
[Hareesh] Social Wavelength is one of India’s largest social media agencies. It was founded in April 2009. At the end of first six months we were like a 10 member team. Today we are 120+ and manage more than 50 Indian and international brands.

[Aakar] Is this your first company?
[Hareesh] No this is my third entrepreneurial venture. My first venture was a human asset management firm (www.ifcmindia.com) which is now managed by my brother. My second venture was an online retail brand (www.homeindia.com), which I sold, a few years ago. Social Wavelength is my third entrepreneurial venture.

[Aakar] How is Social Wavelength doing? Any significant milestone achieved last year?
[Hareesh] We are performing as per our plans. Last year, we crossed a team size of 100, an important milestone for us.

[Aakar] What are the different services offered by your company?
[Hareesh] We offer complete end-to-end solutions, right from strategy to execution. Some of the service offered by Social Wavelength include SM monitoring, creating communities, listening and building customer loyalty.

[Aakar] There are so many social media agencies in India Why should people choose your company? What are the core competencies of Social Wavelength?
[Hareesh] Social Wavelength as an organization has huge experience in managing brands across all kind of verticals be it banking, FMCG, entertainment, technology etc. This experience becomes a huge differentiating factor. Besides we have a large and highly qualified team. This brings about scalability. We offer a complete gamut of social media services in-house that include monitoring, communications, media-buying, application development etc.

[Aakar] Any tips for the Social Media marketers?
[Hareesh] As brand managers we are always eager to know what customers are thinking about our brand / products. For the time in history, social media offers a mechanism for a brand manager to engage with consumers almost on a real time basis and pick up this information. The true ROI of social media lies in “listening” and understanding what the consumer wants and tailoring products and service offering to meet the consumer requirement. Brands need to understand that social media is about building communities and hence the mass communication content pegs and means to reach out to consumers, don’t work on social media.

[Aakar] What are the biggest challenges faced by Social Media Agencies like Social Wavelength, in India?
[Hareesh] There are no “trained social media executives” in India. Hence finding trained manpower and also people who “get” social media is a big challenge. We have our own in-house training cell to provide training to those who join our company.

[Aakar] What do you think about the Social Media Market in India? How competitive is it?
[Hareesh] Social media market in India is very nascent. Brands are developing awareness about the power of social media. Any market space that is valuable will have competition. Right now, we see competition from smaller outfits as well as from traditional media agencies. But, we believe, in terms of size and experience, that we are the biggest agency.

[Aakar] How optimistic you are about the future growth of Social Media? Is it a fad or a real revolution?
[Hareesh] We don’t think social media is a fad. It’s a new way of communication that is going to impact every sphere of our lives. We believe social media is like the second coming of the Internet. Internet completely redefined the way we communicated, the way we engaged with customers or the way we looked for information, a decade ago, and social media is doing the same.

[Aakar] Google has just launched their social network Google+, which many analysts believe as a real competition to Facebook. Do you buy this thought?
[Hareesh] We need to understand that launching a new social networking site is not just a question of having a new and better technology. The power of a social network is exponentially proportional to its existing user base. Here, Facebook has a huge advantage and it will not be easy to replace Facebook based on pure technology play. Besides, whatever Google+ can offer, Facebook also can, so unless Google+ has a serious consumer benefit which will encourage migration from one SNS to another, I think Google has an uphill task before itself.

[Aakar] Thank you for your time Hareesh. Have a wonderful day.
[Hareesh] Thanks.

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